Active nematics on a substrate: Giant number fluctuations and long-time tails

Ramaswamy, S and Simha, Aditi R and Toner, J (2003) Active nematics on a substrate: Giant number fluctuations and long-time tails. In: Europhysics Letters, 62 (2). pp. 196-202.

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Abstract

We construct the equations of motion for the coupled dynamics of order parameter and concentration for the nematic phase of driven particles on a solid surface, and show that they imply i) giant number fluctuations, with a standard deviation proportional to the mean in dimension d = 2 of primary relevance to experiment, and ii) long-time tails $\sim t^{-d/2}$in the autocorrelation of the particle velocities despite the absence of a hydrodynamic velocity field. Our predictions can be tested in experiments on aggregates of amoeboid cells as well as on layers of agitated granular matter.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Europhysics Letters
Publisher:	EDP Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to EDP Sciences.
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	22 Nov 2007
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:28
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/7353

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